Waqt

Thank you for all your suggestions! I just needed two names and so while all the options were all beautiful I went with the ones that were suggested the most!

This was supposed to be Tuesday's update but I'm a very impatient person, like most of you know by now.
So here we are but there won't be an update tomorrow most likely!

The chapter is unedited so let me know if you find any mistakes.

Please enjoy the chapter!
Happy Reading!

One year and six months later

February, 2026
Mumbai

There he stood, with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in his hand looking out of his window that looked over the skyscrapers of the city.

Life had changed.
For the better.

Over the past six months, Armaan had become a different person.

To the world, he was the estranged son of the Poddars; lost and lonely but only he knew that he hadn't ever felt as safe and comfortable in his own skin as he did now.

After months of weekly therapy which included a thousand breakdowns and a million breakthroughs, It felt a little easier to breathe now.

It is impossible to heal years of abuse in a few months but everyday was a lesson.

Some days were harder than others but he knew that it was necessary to go through that.
Sometimes he still felt as if he was responsible for everything bad that had happened but on most days it was easier to remind himself that it wasn't the case.

The battle between what he was told for 22 years and what he was slowly realising was a constant.

It was hard to let go of the abuse and turmoil that he had faced over the past 22 years in a matter of months and while he wasn't fully healed just yet, he was learning to be proud of how far he had come.

Abuse?
Yes, it was just that.
Emotional and mental abuse.
After 22 years he had finally realised that the love that he felt occasionally was just a ploy to keep him under their control.

They knew that all they had to do was to make him feel a little special or sometimes make him feel guilty and he would lay down his life for them. This knowledge had made them take advantage of him for years.

But not anymore.

Now, that he was aware of what they were doing, he didn't want those scraps that they had to offer.

Not anymore and never again.

He had acknowledged the harm that they had caused him and his mother but it was hard to do so because how are you supposed to tell yourself that the people who were the closest to you were also your biggest perpetrators.

He was learning to let go of the guilt and shame their taunts about his parentage had caused.

He was reacquainting himself with the memories of his mother, the memories that he had suppressed and never shared so as to avoid the disruption that his Maa's name caused in that family.